Florida
Lucky Florida? State had a hot streak with 17 Powerball, Mega Millions wins − in 3 months
As Florida sees Powerball and Mega Millions winning streak, the California Lottery said it’s been a lucky May for 6 players.
This is what you can buy if you win the $1 billion lottery
Mega Millions and Powerball are approaching record numbers. Here’s what the winner could buy if they hit the jackpot.
USA TODAY
When it comes to lottery wins, Florida is on a hot streak.
In three months, Florida had 17 lottery prize winners in Powerball and Mega Millions − with ticketholders becoming a millionaire overnight. Some of those wins were from back-to-back drawings. Adding to the hot streak? One ticket from Florida matched all five numbers plus the Powerball to win the $214 million jackpot earlier this month.
And it all starts with a $2 lottery ticket.
As they say in the lottery business, “it could happen to you.”
TL;DR Powerball and Mega Millions lottery wins in Florida
- Tuesday, May 14, 2024: Mega Millions, $1 million
- Tuesday, May 7, 2024: Mega Millions, $1 million
- Monday, May 6, 2024: Powerball, $214 million grand prize
- Tuesday, April 23, 2024: Mega Millions, two tickets won $1 million each
- Friday, April 19, 2024: Mega Millions, $1 million
- Saturday, April 6, 2024: Powerball, $1 million
- Friday, April 5, 2024: Mega Millions, $1 million
- Monday, April 1, 2024: Powerball, $1 million
- Tuesday, March 26, 2024: Mega Millions, two tickets won $1 million each
- Monday, March 25, 2024: Powerball, $1 million
- Saturday, March 23, 2024: Powerball, $1 million
- Friday, March 22, 2024: Mega Millions, $1 million
- Monday, March 18, 2024: Powerball, $1 million
- Saturday, March 9, 2024: Powerball, $1 million
- Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024: Mega Millions, $1 million
In 3 months, Florida had 17 lottery wins for Powerball and Mega Millions. Here’s where winning tickets were bought
Here’s the list of winners and where the winning Mega Millions and Powerball lottery tickets were purchased from February to May, according to the Florida Lottery.
- A Tuesday, May 14, 2024, Mega Millions ticket worth $1 million was a Quick Pick ticket purchased from Publix, No. 1742, 30841 Mirada Blvd., San Antonio.
- In the Tuesday, May 7, 2024, Mega Millions lottery drawing, a secondary winner matched five to win $1 million. That ticket was a Quick Pick purchased at 7-Eleven, No. 34151, 24651 S Tamiami Trail, Bonita Springs.
- In the Tuesday, April 23, 2024, Mega Millions lottery drawing, there were two secondary winners that scored $1 million for matching five numbers, according to the Florida Lottery. One was a Quick Pick ticket purchased at Presidente Supermarket, No. 23, 2199 N.W. 36th St., Miami, and one from Circle K, No. 1205, 101 Buena Ventura Blvd., Kissimmee.
- In the Friday, April 19, 2024, Mega Millions lottery drawing, a secondary winner gets $1 million for matching five numbers. It was a Quick Pick ticket from Publix, No. 0777, 9300 W Commercial Blvd., Sunrise.
- In the Friday, April 5, 2024, Mega Millions lottery drawing, a secondary winner gets $1 million for matching five numbers. This Quick Pick ticket was purchased at Publix, No. 1719, 8160 Wiles Road, Coral Springs.
- The Tuesday, March 26, 2024, Mega Millions lottery drawing produced two secondary winners for $1 million each. A Quick Pick ticket was purchased at Murphy USA, No. 7338, 29 Mike Stewart Drive, Crawfordville, and another ticket came from Publix, No. 631, 4495 Roosevelt Blvd., Suite E-1, Jacksonville.
- In the Friday, March 22, 2024, Mega Millions lottery drawing, a Quick Pick ticket from Publix, No. 0785, 4141 N. Federal Highway, Boca Raton, matched five numbers to win $1 million.
- In the Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024, Mega Millions lottery drawing, one Quick Pick ticket matched five numbers to win $1 million. That ticket came from 7-Eleven, No. 32624, 1651 S.W. St. Lucie West Blvd., Port St. Lucie.
Some other notable Powerball lottery wins in Florida:
- Powerball jackpot dropped back down to $20 million again, when one ticket in Florida matched all five numbers and the Powerball in the drawing on Monday, May 6, 2024, to win the $214 million grand prize.
- In Oregon, Cheng Saephan, 46, his wife Duanpen Saephan, 37, and friend Liza Chao, 55, matched all five numbers plus the Powerball to win the record $1.3 billion jackpot with a cash option of $608.9 million on Saturday, April 6, 2024. It was the fourth highest Powerball jackpot of all time and the eighth-highest lottery jackpot of all time. There was a secondary win in Florida for that April 6 Powerball drawing that resulted in a $1 million prize for whomever purchased a Quick Pick ticket from Circle K, No. 9802, 5025 Tampa Road, Oldsmar.
- No joke: Someone matched five numbers to win $1 million in the Monday, April 1, 2024, Powerball lottery drawing. The Quick Pick ticket came from Sedano’s Supermarket, No. 40, 12981 S. Orange Blossom Trail, Orlando.
- In the Monday, March 25, 2024, Powerball lottery drawing, someone won $1 million for matching five numbers. That Quick Pick ticket came from 7-Eleven, No. 39998, 331 W. Silver Star Road, Ocoee.
- In the Saturday, March 23, 2024, Powerball lottery drawing, a Quick Pick ticket from Publix, No. 1142, 7830 Land O’Lakes Blvd, Land O’Lakes, matched five numbers to win $1 million.
- In the Monday, March 18, 2024, Powerball lottery drawing, someone won $1 million for matching five numbers. The ticket was purchased at Stop & Save Food Store, 4801 Clewis Ave., Tampa.
- In the Saturday, March 9, 2024, Powerball lottery drawing, a Quick Pick ticket from City Food Mart, 21 N. 7th St., Haines City, was worth $1 million for matching five numbers.
How long do you have to cash in a winning Florida Lottery ticket?
Prizes for Florida Lottery must be claimed within 180 days (six months) from the date of the drawing. To claim a single-payment cash option, a winner has within the first 60 days after the applicable draw date to claim it.
Are other states as lucky as Florida when it comes to Powerball and Mega Millions lottery? Is California a lucky lottery state?
While Florida has had 17 lottery winners in three months for Powerball and Mega Millions, the California Lottery said it’s been a lucky May for six players taking home lottery prizes of all sizes.
- Grace Chu won $10 million from a California 200X scratch-off ticket from 7-Eleven, 5724 Thorton Ave., Newark.
- Daniel Fissaha won $5 million from a 100X Scratchers ticket that was purchased at Tip Top Liquors in San Jose, California.
- Deloria Cooper won $5 million from a Lucky 7’s Scratchers ticket purchased from a 7-Eleven on Via Las Rosas in Oceanside, California.
- Lucy Sansosti won $5 million from a 2024 Scratchers ticket sold at ARCO in Newport Beach, California.
- Arturo Saludes won $2 million on an Instant Prize Crossword Scratchers ticket, purchased from the A-1 Valley Market Deli in Lake Elsinore, California.
- Christopher Powers won $1 million playing an Xtreme Multiplier Scratchers ticket that was purchased at EZ Foodmart in Bakersfield, California.
What are the Top 10 largest lottery jackpots in U.S. history?
The following Mega Millions and Powerball jackpots are the Top 10 biggest lottery jackpots in U.S. history, as of May 24, 2024. This list shows many billion-dollar lottery winners from California and at least two from Florida.
- 10. $1.08 billion Powerball drawing — July 19, 2023; California
- 9. $1.13 billion Mega Millions drawing — Tuesday, March 26, 2024; New Jersey
- 8. $1.3 billion Powerball drawing — April 6, 2024; Oregon
- 7. $1.337 billion Mega Millions drawing — July 29, 2022; Illinois
- 6. $1.35 billion Mega Millions drawing — Jan. 13, 2023; Maine
- 5. $1.537 billion Mega Millions drawing — Oct. 23, 2018; South Carolina
- 4. $1.58 billion Mega Millions drawing — Aug. 8, 2023; Florida
- 3. $1.586 billion Powerball drawing — Jan. 13, 2016; California, Florida and Tennessee
- 2. $1.765 billion Powerball drawing — Oct. 11, 2023; California
- 1. $2.04 billion Powerball drawing — Nov. 7, 2022; California
Sangalang is a lead digital producer for USA TODAY Network-Florida. Follow her on Twitter or Instagram at @byjensangalang. Support local journalism. Consider subscribing to a Florida newspaper.
Florida
Florida boy, 4, found dead in Alabama had no signs of assault, trauma as dad is busted on explosives charges
Heartbreaking new details have emerged in the case of the missing Florida boy who was found dead next to his dog as his father faces charges for allegedly making explosives.
Johnathan Boley, 4, did not show any signs of “trauma or assault type injuries” after officials performed an autopsy on Monday morning — three days after the heartbreaking discovery, according to Walker County Sheriff Nick Smith.
A cause of death has not been released as officials await the results of further tests, WBRC reported.
Boley, known by his family as “John John,” was discovered partly in a body of water by a group of volunteers who were searching the wooded area in Jasper, Ala. — two miles from where the boy vanished.
The child, who was visiting his father for the holidays, was last seen playing in the yard with his older brother and their mixed lab pup Buck just before noon on New Year’s Eve.
Boley’s elder sibling said his brother and the Buck had walked across the property line. Jameson Kyle Boley reported his son missing an hour later.
The little tyke, who lived with his mother in Florida after his parents separated, was discovered just before 1 p.m. Friday.
Buck, the loyal pooch, was found alive and next to Boley’s body.
Volunteers were “shook up” when they found Boley after the days-long search.
“You know, obviously you come out to do a good deed and when you get our there, you may have thought that you have fully prepared yourself for what you might come across,” Smith said. “Obviously, they were shaken up.”
Officials also discovered explosive materials inside and around the elder Boley’s home. The discovery of the potentially dangerous materials forced officials to cancel a ground search in the area.
Methamphetamines were also discovered inside the home.
Officials found “evidence that they have had some type of bomb type materials and that have exploded on the property.”
Boley, 40, was arrested and charged with unlawful manufacturing of a destructive device and two counts of chemical endangerment of a child.
He was transported to Blount County jail to “keep him separated from the county and people he may know in the jail,” Smith said.
After “John John’s” body was recovered, family members were permitted to go to Blount County and share the devastating news with the jailed father.
“I arranged with the sheriff of Blount County to let the family go make that notification in person,” Smith said.
What if a state program were bleeding billions of taxpayer dollars, providing funds to nearly anyone who applied, with minimal oversight?
Fiscal conservatives would demand immediate intervention. They would call for rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse, insist on accountability from those in power, and demand swift action to protect public money.
While much public attention has focused on charter school expansion, including Schools of Hope, this discussion concerns a different program altogether: Florida’s rapidly expanding, taxpayer-funded voucher program.
That program, particularly the unchecked growth of the Family Empowerment Scholarship (FES), now allows public dollars to fund private school and homeschool education on an unprecedented scale.
State officials tout a budget surplus, but independent analysts project that an additional $4–5 billion in annual voucher spending will lead to an imminent budget deficit.
The findings of a recent independent audit of FES are alarming. It examined what happens to these public funds and whether they truly “follow the child,” as Floridians were repeatedly promised.
They did not.
The auditor general was blunt: “Whatever can go wrong with this system has gone wrong.”
The audit raises more questions than answers:
— Why would state legislators steer a previously healthy state budget toward a projected deficit?
— Why is the state unable to account for roughly 30,000 students — representing approximately $270 million in taxpayer dollars — on any given day?
— And why is voucher spending deliberately obscured from public scrutiny by burying it in the public-school funding formula?
According to auditors, Florida’s voucher program has grown faster than the state’s ability to manage it. They identified gaps in real-time tracking, limited verification of eligibility and enrollment, and financial controls that have failed to keep pace with explosive growth.
These are not minor administrative errors; they are flashing warning lights.
Waste, fraud, and abuse are not partisan concerns; they are fiscal ones. Any government program that cannot clearly show where public dollars are or whether they are used appropriately represents a failure of the Legislature’s duty to safeguard taxpayer funds.
It is also important to be honest about what voucher growth truly represents. Despite frequent claims of a mass exodus from public schools, data show that roughly 70%of voucher recipients in recent years were not previously enrolled in public schools.
This is not a story of families fleeing public education. It is a story of public dollars being quietly redirected away from it.
That distinction matters because Florida’s public School Districts remain subject to strict accountability standards that do not apply to private or homeschool programs that receive voucher funds. Public schools must administer state assessments, publish performance data, comply with open-records laws, and undergo regular financial audits.
Public education across Florida is not stagnant. School Districts are actively innovating while serving as responsible stewards of public dollars by expanding career pathways, strengthening partnerships with local employers and higher education, and adapting to an increasingly complex choice landscape. When Districts are supported by stable policy and predictable funding, they lead.
But choice only works when transparency and quality accompany it. If state dollars support a student’s education, those dollars should be accompanied by state-level accountability, including meaningful oversight and participation in statewide assessments.
State dollars should meet state standards.
The audit also makes clear that technical fixes alone are insufficient. As long as voucher funding remains intertwined with public school funding formulas, billions of dollars in voucher spending will remain obscured from public scrutiny. The program must stand on its own.
Florida’s fiscally conservative Senators recognized this reality when they introduced SB318, a bipartisan bill to implement the auditor general’s recommendations and bring transparency and fiscal responsibility to school choice. The House must now follow suit.
Families like mine value school choice. But without meaningful reform, the current system is not financially sustainable.
Fiscal responsibility and educational opportunity are not competing values. Floridians must insist on both.
___
Liz Barker is a Sarasota County School Board member.
Bolstered by more than 300 Falcon 9 rocket launches — primarily from Florida’s Space Coast — SpaceX’s 9,000-plus Starlink high-speed internet satellites now serve more than 9 million customers in more than 155 countries and markets, the company reported last week.
Now, the burgeoning Starlink constellation is slated to expand again. SpaceX is targeting Thursday, Jan. 8, for an afternoon Falcon 9 liftoff from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Launch window: 1:29 p.m. to 5:29 p.m.
The rocket will deploy 29 Starlink satellites in low-Earth orbit. Similarly, the Falcon 9 first-stage booster should wrap up its 29th mission by landing aboard the SpaceX drone ship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic Ocean, hundreds of miles southeast of the Cape.
FLORIDA TODAY Space Team live coverage of Thursday’s Starlink 6-96 mission will kick off roughly 90 minutes before liftoff at floridatoday.com/space.
The first launch of 2026 from Florida’s Space Coast took flight at 1:48 a.m. Sunday, Jan. 4. That’s when a Falcon 9 lifted off from the Space Force installation, then deployed a batch of 29 Starlink satellites.
What’s more, SpaceX has another Starlink mission in store this upcoming weekend. More details:
- Launch window: 1:34 p.m. to 5:34 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 10.
- Trajectory: Southeast.
- Location: Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
- Sonic booms: No.
In a 2025 progress report, Starlink officials reported crews equipped more than 1,400 commercial aircraft with Starlink antennae last year. That represents nearly four times the number of aircraft outfitted during 2024.
More than 21 million passengers experienced Starlink’s “at-home-like internet” last year aboard United Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, Alaska Airlines, JSX, WestJet, Qatar Airways, Air France, Emirates, Air New Zealand and airBaltic flights, per the report.
For the latest news from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, visit floridatoday.com/space. Another easy way: Click here to sign up for our weekly Space newsletter.
Rick Neale is a Space Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY, where he has covered news since 2004. Contact Neale at Rneale@floridatoday.com. Twitter/X: @RickNeale1
Space is important to us and that’s why we’re working to bring you top coverage of the industry and Florida launches. Journalism like this takes time and resources. Please support it with a subscription here.
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